The History of the Campus Kitchens Project >>

The Campus Kitchens Project was developed in 2001 as a national outgrowth of DC Central Kitchen, a successful local community kitchen model in Washington DC. The way it happened was kind of a marriage of two concepts.

In 1989, Robert Egger, founder and CEO of DC Central Kitchen, pioneered the idea of recycling food from around Washington DC and using it as a tool to train unemployed adults to develop valuable work skills. DCCK became a national model, and as the idea grew, Robert was looking for a way to engage schools in the effort. He piloted a job training program with the American School Food Service, he regularly engaged high school and college students as volunteers at DCCK, and he spoke at universities all over the country. Yet, he knew that there was more potential out there.

In 1999, two Wake Forest University students, Jessica Shortall and Karen Borchert, created a small student organization called Homerun that engaged students in cooking and delivering dinners to folks in the community. What started as a fun hobby instead became a successful campus organization: students just get the idea of sharing a meal with someone, and the idea of making dinner is fun, social, and easy.

So in 2001, worlds collided. We took the nationally recognized DC Central Kitchen model and paired it with the Homerun concept of student-led meal programs and with a start-up grant from the Sodexho Foundation piloted The Campus Kitchens Project at Saint Louis University in Missouri.

After seven years of opening 12 Campus Kitchens and refining the model, we are now an organization poised for a major national roll-out. We are headquartered in Washington, DC, with Campus Kitchens located in St. Louis, Greater Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Spokane, Mankato, Minn., Washington, DC, Lexington & Williamsburg, Vir., Gettysburg, Penn., Winston-Salem, N.C., and Kearney, Neb.

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